The secret to getting research publications

Yesterday, I was talking to one of my classmates that is applying into dermatology this coming cycle while drinking an affogato (big fan).

She has published 8 publications in the last 6 months. Pretty crazy, but that is what it takes to match derm.

I asked her for secret and leaned in. She said, “it’s just clinical research. you do some chart review and write it up. I wish i had known this in undergrad.”

So, I asked, “what do you think you did wrong in undergrad?”

She replied, “too much time doing wet lab research. I spent 2.5 years on the same project and it never went anywhere. Just one poster and no publication.”

I sat there thinking, “Huh. Despite her being a genius, she never cracked the wet lab/basic science hack for premeds.”

While I am definitely not as smart as she is, I think in undergrad I accidentally stumbled on a massive research hack.

Today, I am going to break it down for you, but before we get started, I need two things from you.

1. leave your ego at the door

2. believe that, regardless of age, you can be the best at something in your lab

I have shared this hack with 2 of my premed mentees. One of them started publishing like crazy within 6 months of learning the hack. The other one never got anywhere.

The difference between the two was not intelligence or hard work. It was ego.

Alright let’s get started.

What people get wrong about wet lab research

Honestly, this an ideological mismatch problem.

Most premeds that do research are there because it has turned into a psudo-requirement to get into top med schools. This means they are optimizing for publications/presentations. Just something to show for their work.

However, typically your research mentor (whether the PI/postdoc/PhD candidate) they are optimizing to turn you into a good researcher.

And the truth that no one will tell you is the best researchers are not the ones with the most publications.

Disconnect between pubs and good researcher

The disconnect is that to be a good researcher, you need to have a strong understanding of the question you are exploring, how to conduct an array of experiments, analyze the data, write the manuscript, and 52 other smaller steps there.

Learning all of these steps are important and good for critical thinking/development, but it is not effective.

Getting good at any one of those steps requires you to fail a couple of times.

But in lot of wet lab research where each experiment may take a week to run, you don’t have that kind of time.

So, tl;dr great for development, but bad for productivity.

However, you know where people are really productive, McDonalds.

Just think about it, the majority of people working there aren’t typically that passionate about making burgers. But regardless of how long the line is, the orders are flying.

The secret?

The employees are in charge of doing 1-2 things really fast and well. They assembly line the crap out of it.

Regardless the order, the patty flipper will flip the patty.

Mixing McDonalds and Research

The secret here is when optimizing for productivity/efficiency, there is always more bang for your buck if you focus on doing 1 thing incredible well.

Once you nail the one thing, you won’t just be doing it for yourself/your mentor. You will be doing it for every project in the lab.

For example, as a freshman in the lab, I became the very best at qPCR. So, I offered to run the qPCR for numerous people and often times they said no.

However, on 2 occasions, 2 different people came up to me to ask if i could run it for them. And guess what, that led to 2 publications.

Literally the best return on investment in terms of time/energy in a lab that i have ever had.

But, it doesn’t just have to be qPCR. You can do this for:

• Western Blots: People suck at these but nearly every lab does them

• Imaging: Electron microscopy/ fluorescent microscopy. Every pub loves a cute picture. Plus there is typically someone in the building who will teach you in 4 hours.

• Dissections: If you are the best at harvesting organs, everyone will love you.

• Data Analysis: Knowing even basic coding in R can make a huge difference and turn you into a massive asset for the lab. Labs hire statisticians. You can replace them with a little elbow grease.

Keep in Mind

This method works, but you have to build trust.

To build trust, you need to consistently show how good you are.

Use lab meetings as a place to show it off your images or lunch talk as a place to talk about how knowing R has helped you so much.

At first people will be a little hesitant, but if you are truly in the best in the lab, they will come to you.

The first few months will be slow, but even on a 2 year timeline you could get 5+ scientific pubs with this method.

Best,

CKR

P.S. once you nail one skill, start working on a second one. Your pubs will increase exponentially (not linearly) and these pubs will go into your residency app too.

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